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Thursday, 22 April 2010

Up Close and Personnel

Forgive me for the number of posts recently but as you can see a fair bit has been happening.

Today was no different. I had an appointment this morning with Pat, one of the personnel managers, at work. As I mentioned previously she had been told that I wanted to see her about something. In actual fact she was originally told that someone wanted to discuss some issues with her but not who. Jan eventually told her 3 weeks later who it was that wanted to talk to her.

I turned up at the personnel office bang on time only to find the office locked up and nobody around. I was just about to wander off when a young woman (has to be a few years younger than me so counts as young) who was sitting at a desk outside the office asked if I wanted to see someone. It turned out that she was the new personnel manager that has just stared so we introduced ourselves and I found out that she couldn't get into the office either as nobody had given her a key.

We chatted and just as I was about to go and come back Pat arrived. We popped into the Personnel Directors office, as they are away at the moment, for our chat.

It was nice and relaxed and Patricia was very understanding and supportive. Its a shame that she is leaving in a weeks time. We talked about what I was doing, what I had to do and a lot more. The best bit of advice that she gave me was that whatever I did then it had to be what made me happy and helped me to stop being what other people expected and to be what I wanted to be.

Eventually Pat told me that she would have to tell the rest of the personnel team so that they were aware and she could prepare them to help me through all of this and to help my colleagues to deal with it when I start coming into work as a female.

Pat also said that she would decide who would be the best person to be my point of contact. I mentioned L who I've known since I started and who in fact did all the running around to make sure that I had offer letters and everything so that I could hand in my notice at my last job. L is a lovely lady and I've had a fair few dealings with her over the year so I feel comfortable around her and trust her. Pat told me that L was who she would have chosen anyway.

So now there are going to be 5 people at work, not counting Pat as she is going to have left in a week, who know that I am seeking to transition.

I'm slowly but surely freeing myself from spending far too long conforming to other people's ideas of who and what I am and how I behave. Slowly but surely I'm going to be who and what I really am.